Fraud is the Worst: Or, You'll Never Notice the Taste of Sin

There are the worst, and then there are the worst of the worst – those whose punishment, no matter how painful or gruesome it may be, never seems fitting for the crimes that they committed. According to Dante, author of The Divine Comedy, the worst of the worst – those sinners who even sinners despise – are those who commit the sins of the Leopard, also known as Fraud/Traitors. But why is telling a lie so bad? Why is turning on someone so wrong? Wouldn’t murder be worse – those sins of the Lion? There is one large difference between the wounds of violence and the wounds of lies, and that difference is that physical wounds will eventually heal over – true, they might scar, but the wounds are closed nevertheless – yet the mental/emotional/social-economic wounds will never completely close; they’ll seep open when one least expects them to and fester and puss and ache for eternity.

In this lowest level of Hell, according to Dante in his trek, there are still levels, and depending to whom one does wrong to will decide to which of these levels they’ll go. Dante doesn’t just cover the sacred; he also covers the secular so that even those who mayn’t believe will still take heed to his warning, convert, and live their lives in a proper way.

One can have their arm broken in a fit of rage by another, and, though painful, the bones will eventually mend and all will be put behind the two. However, one can be betrayed, and that betrayal, no matter how small, will stay with them for the rest of their lives. And Dante does include members of the clergy in these lower levels of Hell as well as just “regular” members of society. In Canto XXVII, Dante – also called The Pilgrim – meets Guido da Montefeltro, a former soldier who joined the clergy and trusted in Pope Boniface VIII when the Pope convinced Guido to use fraud (lies) in Boniface’s campaign (XXVII 67-75). When Guido says that his actions were those not of a lion but of a fox, he’s basically saying that no longer did he use violence to persuade, per se – a force – rather that of a knowing willful tongue to tell lies so that his “High Priest” (the Pope) would succeed (XXVII 75-111). And Guido never does show any remorse for his lying because he thought that the Pope was granting him absolution; therefore, he never asked God for His forgiveness – and that’s the one person that he should have asked (XVII 108-111). Granted, Guido thought that he was being given absolution – after all, the Pope is supposed to be God’s “right-hand man”. Perhaps that is why Guido, while still in Lower Hell, is not in the Lowest Hell.

   As Dante and Virgil, his guide and a Pagan, for Virgil was pre-monotheistic but condemned to Highest Hell nevertheless, go lower and lower in this strange Hell, they meet more and more different kinds of liars and get closer and closer to the ultimate betrayer himself, Satan, also known as Lucifer. As they near the frozen fallen angel, the liars and/or betrayers get worse.

Eventually, the two meet Mahomet, the founder of another religion, who is in the 8^th circle and very near the 9^th (XXVIII). Because Mahomet “created” another religion, he didn’t follow that of the Church (which was the one “true” religion, thus Catholic), he was very low in Lower Hell – almost in the last circle (XXVIII). In current times today, people think really nothing of those who follow a different religion, let alone the founders of said religion. But back in the time of Dante, following, never mind creating another religion, went against the Church and therefore God. And so, Mahomet is torn from navel to sternum, organs spilling out (XXVIII 23-33).

But it is the Lowest Level of Hell – the Ninth Ring – where those who commit the ultimate sin rest (XXXIV). That level is also where Satan/Lucifer is frozen in a solid river, vainly flapping wings to try to escape while chewing on the worst of the worst of the worst frauders (XXXIV 28-69).  Dante and Virgil make their way towards the beast as his three faces gnaw on the three worst sinners of all time. These three sinners each committed the ultimate sin – that against their God and their Country (XXXIV 43-69).  In the front mouth, Satan chews on Judas Iscariot, who Virgil calls the  “one who suffers most of all” (XXXIV 61-62). In the Catholic tradition – or any Christian tradition honestly – most, if not all, know that Judas betrayed Jesus (who was believed to be the human form of God here on earth) for thirty pieces of silver. Judas, by betraying Jesus – and ultimately condemning Him to crucifixion – betrayed not only his fellow believers, other people, and what would be the up and coming Church, he also betrayed God Himself. Hence, of the three Lucifer is gnawing on, Judas Iscariot is the worst of the worst (XXXIV 61-63). One should also note that Satan is frozen in ice – and the center of the earth – in much the same way that he holds Judas in him mouth – feet sticking out and head and torso inside (XXXIV 61-63, 71-93). In the other two maws are Brutus and Cassius – the two who killed Julius Caesar on March 15. Strange that they should be there when they killed a pagan, but the two didn’t just kill any old pagan – instead, they killed the head of the Roman Empire, the Head of State, and one of the most powerful people of that time (XXXIV 64-69). The three men went against two of the most powerful people on earth and succeeded in killing them both. This is the one of the last sights seen by Dante as Virgil carries him out of Hell.

Therefore, while telling a knowing little lie here or there may not seem like such a big deal, knowingly deceiving someone about something is. It’s because one is willfully misusing the intellect and free will that was given to humans by God when they were created – being sane and in their right mind, unlike in passionate fits of lust or violence – that they are thought to be the worst of the worst and sentenced to the lowest levels of Hell.    

Works Cited:

Dante “The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: the Inferno” Penguin Books and Indiana University Press USA, 1972&1984.